#hxh theories

[moretheta]

listen if mr. chrollo "it's my fault" lucilfer was broken up over the deaths of pakunoda and uvogin, both which went to their graves somewhat willingly (that is to say, a result of their own choices), and downright devastated after the deaths of shalnark and kortopi (a direct consequence of chrollo "stealing" their nen so that he could attain a landslide victory against hisoka) how is he gonna feel if (when) bonolenov gets packed up by hisoka on tier 1 explicitly due to a plan chrollo made.

my brother in christ this is not how you keep your teammates alive this is not how you make your dreams come true

[lightfeltmemories]

hxh theory: is feitan a p3d0phile?

tw's: mentions of l0l1c0n, paraphilia, p3d0philia, sadism and torture because its fucking feitan, cp (debatable if you consider l0l1c0n cp), mentions of problematic hxh ships such as feitan x kalluto and hisoka x gon

just a note: before you come at me with your pitchforks leaving hate in my asks and dms, i am not a fan of l0l1c0n nor am i trying to defend it, this post is a simple theory i have gathered by evidence in the manga, no one is saying that you should believe this theory, it's more of a "do with this information what you will" kind of thing.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

so, you may be reading this title and you're thinking "what the actual fuck?" and you probably believe that i pulled this straight out of the deepest parts of my ass, but what if i told you i had some plausible evidence for this theory?

so, for starters, this thought actually came to me when i was reading a post by a user on here named @/cautionworks (i'm not going to tag them here because i don't know them nor do i want to seem like a bother) who made a post relating to their favorite ships (warning as the post does contain problematic ships such as hisogon and such, not saying in particular im against the ship, im just giving out a warning to anyone who is triggered by minor x adult ships) and there was a ship listed as feitan x kalluto.

in the passage it mentions that they found out that feitan may be into l0l1, which at first thought was a bit strange but once you think about it more, the concept isn't the most absurd for someone like him.

i haven't seen anyone actually talk about feitan possibly being into l0l1c0n, much less being a p3do, probably because of the anti's in the fandom.

so, lets get on with the actual evidence!

in the yorknew city arc, after he was done torturing the owl, he is seen reading a book by an author named trevor brown, and as stated on his hunterpedia page, trevor is a controversial artist who's work involves paraphilia; atypical sexual urges.

according to trevor's wikipedia page, "His work explores paraphilias, such as lolicon, ero guro, BDSM, and other fetish themes. Innocence, violence, misogyny, and Japanese popular culture all collide in Brown's art."

there is also a reddit post relating to this topic as well, and according to said post the topic was popular on tik tok at a certain period in time (not very important but i thought it was kind of interesting since im a tik tok user and content creator kind of)

so, does this make feitan a p3d0phile? i can see why people would think so, and i can also see why people wouldn't.

why i would is simple; trevor brown's art speaks for itself, the usage of fictional little girls in... lets just say, VERY interesting situations would make one assume off rip that feitan may be a p3d0phile, or at least a l0l1con, not to mention, togashi isn't afraid of making a character like this especially since we have hisoka (not saying hisoka is a p3d0, but many do, and im just trying to prove a point and give an example as to why the concept of feitan being a p3d0 isn't something completely out of the ordinary, hxh does get pretty dark after all).

why i wouldn't: i've seen some arguments that feitan may not hold the same views as trevor despite him doing some questionable things, similar to how people may like a certain character or even person in real life but not agree with everything they say or do, not to mention he doesn't seem to act weird or overly charming with kids like hisoka, he certainly isn't afraid to hurt or torture one (gon) but theres no actual implications outside of him reading this book by a controversial artist that he is sexually attracted to them.

but in my personal opinion, unless specified by togashi himself, or given any more details about how he feels about such things i wouldn't go as far as to call feitan a p3d0 just because he's seen reading a book by someone known to create l0l1 art, hell, he might be reading a book that doesn't include anything relating to p3d0philia, since the cover art isn't explicitly shown.

[gab-has-adhd]

What the heck is going on on the Black Whale with Hisoka, Illumi and the Phantom Troupe

(Based on ideas and theories I saw and also my own dumb brain)

Illumi was actually Hisoka disguised as Illumi. His powered-up nen now allows him to be able to completely camouflage himself under layers of Bungee Gun and Texture Surprise.

Illumi was Illumi, but the Hisoka we see later going to the movies and talking to Hinrigh was actually Chrollo im disguise for some reasons (I've read and watched an explanation for this theory and I thought it did somewhat make sense but honestly I forgor and I'm not a fan of this theory)

Illumi and Hisoka are actually just themselves and they are eeally actually going to attempt killing the other, and potentially kill each other for fun, because they're fucked up gay murderous husbands. If Illumi dies Hisoka will not actually miss him but he'd have had the best fight of jos life after Chrollo. If Hisoka dies Illumi will first pretend he doesn't miss him, but very slowly descends into a more and more unhinged and unstable mental state, because he killed his only friend, the one he strayed fr the path of the assassin for (because of? Thanks to?)

Illumi is a double agent pretending he joined the Phantom Troupe to help them kill Hisoka. In that case: either Illumi actually also wants to kill Hisoka, but before this they have a little game of whack-a-Spider, or Illumi is fully on Hisoka's side and intends to help him squashing all the Spiders, going as far as ending up saying "Zoldycks aren't allowed to kill each other", referring to their marriage and the fact that Hisoka is now technically a Zoldyck.

Togashi will surprise all of us with something that absolutely no one even considered.

[grimeye-j]

I feel like, now that he works as a bodyguard, Kurapika is going to be put in a situation where he will have to chose between retrieving the scarlet eyes or saving someone's life (maybe the queen, one of the princes or one of the other hunters)

He would have to decide what's more important to him, the dead or the living, his past or his present/future.

[babyilluwu]

Thank youuu!!! I think I'm more inclined towards the 2nd theory (tho I love the detail about them knowing that Chrollo knows and it all becoming a VERY complex mind game), and I think it's worth mentioning the fact he has a VIP ticket 👀 is it just a "Zoldycks are rich" thing or?

@babyilluwu

Illumi!

Illumi is the first chatacter I'll talk about that we've seen recently. Allegedly, he's married to hisoka and stands to gain a great deal of money from this arrangement when he kills Hisoka.

I personally ascribe to the theory that Hisoka is currently disguised as Illumi and Illumi is currently disguised as Hisoka. The marriage proposal sounds like a very Hisoka lie. Needlessly flirtatous I would say, and that describes Hisoka to a T.

Illumi as Hisoka however is pretty stern, and makes expressions similar to those of Illumi. He never lies, merely avoids the question and does not directly answer to Hisoka. He's very strong and pretty evil, but that's all we know about "Hisoka."

Tbh the future holds the camera cutting back to Illumi and he's balls deep in with hisoka while they casually talk about plans to kill the spiders, then swap places as each person resumes their real identity, foreseeing Chrollo foreseeing that Illumi was secretly Hisoka, and attacking with a plan to counter Hisoka that faulters in the face of Illumi.

Basically, they're swapped but I think Chrollo has already figured it out and his plan involves Bonolonov and Machi, whose abilities are bad against Hisoka, finding Illumi disguised as Hisoka and fighting him to eliminate Illumi, Hisokas only help, only to be surpised when Hisoka is really Hisoka.

ALTERNATIVELY

if Illumi is really who he says, his methods are circuitous. If he really wanted to find Hisoka, he would probably best be served sticking to a group of spiders, following them until a lead presented itself, then ditch once it did.

Instead he chooses to travel with his younger sibling, someone trustable and obedient with passable information gathering capacities. If I had to guess, Illumi is telling the truth but not the whole truth. He is searching for Hisoka, but that's a second or third priority to a larger family project. Perhaps one of the Kakin Princes has hired the zoldyck in advance, being tipped off to succession war in advance, or at least infurring from it's convience aboard the black whale. The current hot target would likely be morena.

Thank you! Ping me again if you want any others!

[tryingmybestiguess]

"How to talk to short people" by Kacho

[timeskip]

I'm literally so obsessed with how her legs are hanging off the chair. Someone get her a smaller chair!!!!!!!!

And I'm really happy to see her again in general <3 I love Melody sm

[lumizold]

“Feitan is a Zoldyck for sure, he literally looks like Milluki, but slimmer”

I don’t know, buddy…

To me he looks more like Gotoh.

They have the same eyes, Feitan kinda looks like him, but younger and without myopia. To me it’s canon.

…lol.

[nynyhaha]

Tssereidnich is sus af with his line that he desires “works of art made by young people with potential in extraordinary situations.” Basically,acts of gory murder committed by someone he considers interesting.

atp it doesn’t matter how the troupe relates to the massacre,either way their story will be tragic,the question is if it’s a tragedy of misunderstanding and sacrifice,or of becoming as bad as the ones they wanted to destroy.

BECAUSE THE MASSACRE IS WHAT DEFINES THEM AS VILLAINS. We get introduced to them in that context and we start out viewing them as monsters,that later turn out to me much more sympathetic that we could ever anticipate to the point where we question whether they’re guilty at all,since they’ve become so human in our eyes we can’t quite imagine them doing it.THE COGNITIVE DISSONANCE IS INSANE. It might just be me,but using HxH standards,so far the troupe hasn’t shown itself to be all that horrible at all.It’s one of many conflicting crime teams so if we never knew about their alleged crimes in the past,we wouldn’t at all perceive them as evil.

so the kurta clan massacre is necessary to set the troupe apart from morally grey hunters and add some weight to their crimes that would otherwise be pretty acceptable in the fans’ eyes(I’m the fans).

If they turn out to be more innocent than we thought it will ruin Kurapika completely and it will be very fun to watch. It would counter the idea of revenge with “what if you’re wrong” and that’s hilarious. Like he lost part of his lifespan FOR NOTHING. It would affirm our ideas about the troupe having some kind of honour code,SOME moral principles still(and they really keep teasing us with those,like most of Phinks lines speaking to characters outside the troupe,or Nobunagas monologue about how they USED to be lost in the darkness and driven by hate,but NOW they’re not like that)

If that happens I’ll pull some shit like “I always believed in you guys!”(when it came to the question whether Chrollo ACTUALLY cares about his members I bet that he did,and I turned out to be RIGHT!)

but in this case i really don’t know and I might actually like it MORE if they ARE at fault. Because otherwise..Uvo and Paku would’ve died because Kurapika misunderstood everything.AND THIS IS JUST UNACCEPTABLE 😃👹👹

LIKE HOW MUCH OF A SCAPEGOAT CAN YOU BE

and yeah I find it weird how on one hand the troupe wants to be feared and they don’t care who comes after them for what reason (they’re fine with being blamed for everything since the world would hate them in any case)

AND ON THE OTHER HAND THEY SAY THEY HAVE REASONS. Like not only does Franklin say they wouldn’t attack those who didn’t start it,Phinks accuses Luini of being a GLUTTON FOR MURDER,Nobunaga goes defending the world!!!🥹💕 Sure they might be hypocrites but they don’t seem to be very delusional or self righteous characters,so it seems they want to appear to have reasons and act according to sow notion of justice. THIS DRIVES ME UP A WALL

do they wanna reveal their fucking motives or are they strategically misunderstood because the worse they’re seen as,the better??

like dudes,stop ruining your bad reputation🙄🤚

ah and if the meteor city motto note really was left by them,then I figure there HAD to be a reason since I don’t think they’d wanna paint the city as unjust when their whole slogan is based on only striking back. The SPIDER might kill arbitrarily as far as the world is concerned,but why involve meteor city?

Hunter x Hunter: Conspiracy theory

this is a big leap and a reach and feeds my narrative satisfaction.

and it involves HEAVY troupe copium and apologist things of that nature.

you've been warned. proceed with a grain of salt.

(also gonna. put it under a break bcs this got long as hell XD)

I think the troupe was not solely responsible for the kurtan massacre and are on the Black Whale 1 to show the one responsible that they aren't going to continue to protect his clean record.

allow me to explain, starting with yorknew.

so i have had this theory knocking around in my head that the yorknew auction was meant to be a sort of finale or huge thing. because that was a big deal right, that's the world mafia they're pissing off.

AND it was weird bcs chrollo wanted everything at the auction. the troupe calls him out on that. and since we all know chrollo is a theatrical bastard, there is a meaning behind everything so this is no different.

so why does he want to declare war on the world mafia.

here's what we know.

meteor city was selling their own people to the mafia for a guarantee of safety from the black market. we don't know if these people went willingly or not but it was why the mafia didn't want to continue to pursue the troupe. the connection between meteor city and the world mafia was very important.

we know a few things changed between the troupe flashback and present day.

a) the troupe gained a reputation. until yorknew, apparently no one knew they were from meteor city.

b) the elders learned how to use nen. at the very least, we know of one counteractive nen ability that was used to protect the city's citizens from unfair indictment. there were probably more but we dont know for sure.

c) the mafia had gotten really comfortable with their connection with meteor city, now relying more on the city than the city relied on it.

chrollo was the one who most likely set up this relationship. it was his promise to set up the city as a hub for criminals so that he could personally witness and sift through the absolute scum of the earth to find sarasa's killers.

so based on all of this:

Yorknew City was meant to be the start of chrollo's grand finale to tear down the criminal infrastructure in meteor city.

but, things happened. and he got his ass beat.

POINT IS: Chrollo organizes his attacks with purpose.

.... SO WHY THE FUCK IS THIS DUMBASS TRYING TO ATTACK THE KAKIN FUCKING EMPIRE.

"attack" being an exaggeration but cmon. stealing from is the same thing as coming over and spitting in their food.

here's where the conspiracy theory comes in.

what if the kurta massacre wasn't exclusively done the troupe.

yes this is the part with the troupe apologist bullshit but hear me out. i have something interesting to share.

so at this point we know the troupe doesn't do petty theft anymore. this isn't just a "hey the kakin empire is rich. lets rob them :D" job. chrollo on a mission.

i saw this on twitter and a single post led down this downward spiral. (images are linked to the post)

so these pages stood out to me. the troupe never starts fights? that sounds stupid. sound goofy even.

but it's true.

or, phrased correctly, the troupe doesn't start fights they don't know how to finish. since chrollo is the head, they all function as his limbs, meaning they share his mentality when approaching combat: he will not take fights he can't guarantee he will win.

that being said, as shown in the pages above, they will ALWAYS pick up the gauntlet. if someone picks a fight with THEM, the entire gang will spin the block. aint no one surviving.

in the succession war arc, they were framed for the murder of a char-r member because luini was a toxic fan.

so here's the hypothetical: what if the troupe was framed for the kurta massacre?

we know their hands aren't clean. uvo, chrollo, phinks and pakunoda all recall the killing, so that's evidence they were there for it.

here's some things I don't understand about the event though.

a) the kurta were supposedly super well hidden, to the point that when kurapika was shown in vol 0/the phantom rouge, there were tribe traditions that forbade anyone that couldn't hide their eyes properly from going outside of the village. this was like. i think 1 year or so before the massacre.

b) when exactly did the eyes become relevant to body part collection? if it is believed that the troupe attacked the clan for the money that the eyes sell for, that means there must have been some already on the market. we dont get confirmation of this

c) how was a process for preserving magic eyes conceived at this time? im flabbergasted.

leaning mostly on point b, the kurta clan must have had previous victims of their scarlet eyed members getting got. which leads to point a, heightened protection of the kurtans with scarlet eyes.

but, as is anything in the hxh world, if there is something rare, there will always be a market for it.

now keep in mind what i said before: the troupe never picks up fights unless they know they can win and unless there's an ulterior motive. money doesn't matter to them, neither does infamy. at this point they're grade A bounties so yeah, neither of those things mean jack shit.

so i raise the idea that was in that twitter post: what if someone framed the spiders for the massacre and they took it in stride. that's free street cred, of course they claim ownership.

but let's go back and analyze, because who in their right mind would pick these randoms.

the kakin empire would. or someone associated with a high seat of power that can't afford to be tainted with something like genocide.

let's look at fourth prince tserreidnich.

im not saying he specifically pointed the finger at the spiders, but he was most likely the benefactor that wanted the scarlet eyes in the first place. he would stop at no means and he lets his people handle the dirty work.

he even has a damn head that is probably also kurtan.

so let's go out on a limb and say that tserreidnich ordered a party of mercenaries to track down the kurta clan so he could expand his collection. but, obviously, the group can't take the blame, so they pin it on the troupe or claim to be the troupe.

and because the troupe was wronged all of those years ago, chrollo is now aiming a full frontal assault against the kakin empire. hisoka is just a side quest. chrollo *remembers* how he was wronged.

so to recap. here's how the theory says the story goes.

the phantom troupe is in lukso province for whatever reason. probably to target the large movement of body part collectors to the region or something completely unrelated.

the 4th prince's team moves into the kurta village and starts taking the eyes. the kurtans successfully fight back and demand to know who they are. they answer, "we're the spiders"

and the kurtans, now hell bent on revenge for their fallen, seek out the troupe and pick a fight. and the troupe being the troupe, pick up the gauntlet no questions asked.

(alt. the kurtans seek out a powerful ally in the troupe to fight back against what we assume are trained human hunters and when they fail, beg to be killed as well)

chrollo at the time doesn't question the interaction. it was a gang of violent vagabonds trying to right a wrong that the troupe didn't even participate in.

it bothers him, just a little bit, that someone would try to frame the troupe for an atrocity that they didn't do. sure, it fit their narrative and added to their reputation, but it bothers him that someone out there had used their name.

but come yorknew, he's confronted with a surviving kurta. and the problem resurfaces.

he has his hands full trying to reroute the course of the yorknew heist and has to cut a lot of his plans short. he still completed his goal and started the process of severing ties between the mafia and meteor city.

but now the kurta are a problem in his life again and once he gets that damn chain out of his chest, he has two things to focus on:

a) getting away from hisoka to gather abilities

b) figuring out how to deal with kurapika

he remembers the kurta and is totally okay with shouldering the blame for their elimination. but that means that he's clearing the name of someone else for free.

and he doesn't do shit for free.

since he doesn't have to worry about meteor city immediately (the 10 dons are dead and the world mafia is in shambles), he can move onto bigger fish.

right now, his goal is to figure out the truth behind the kurtan massacre. and his search leads him to 4th prince tserriednich. a man in possession of eyes that the troupe didn't sell and way more than the 36 total that *should* be on the market.

THAT is why chrollo is picking a fight with the kakin empire. THAT is why he is on the black whale one. he's here to settle a 7 year old score, and if he can take hisoka down at the same time? good for him.

anyway thats my crazy conspiracy theory. there are some wrinkles in here that may be defied by canon reveals later in the story.

but damn would this make sense for why chrollo is on that damn boat. bcs i know he isn't stupid enough to send the ENTIRE TROUPE on a suicide mission just for hisoka.

so unless we get a reveal of something else substantial, this is what i'm working with.

[3aoldyeck]

i used to be all for Illumi's eyes being that way because over time as he had to endure more and more torture his eyes just became completely lifeless and thats why theyre devoid of any color and are all black n shit. but i came to the conclusion that that could just be his thousand-yard stare from everything hes had to endure. not that his eyes had "lost all color and life" sorta thing.

its evident that Milluki's eyes are also as black as his, so the black eyes are definitely a genetic thing (im assuming from Kikyo) but i think the reason Illu looks like *that* is just a case of thousand-yard stare from being traumatized beyond belief, and the black eyes reinforce that. and maybe thats why hes so fucked up compared to the rest of the Zoldyck children.

[morallygay]

My theory about “the truth about halkenburg’s birth” is that his mother is queen unma. I don’t know how or why that would be the case (there could be multiple reasons tho to want a certain prince to be affiliated with a certain queen, for its various implications) but just physically come on you HAVE to point out he looks so much like her and benjamin too. They’re the only 3 characters with that nose.

(Tsubeppa also has the same big square chin as benjamin and halkenburg tho. A counter-argument against “halkenburg is unma’s child not duazul’s” since she is allegedly his sister and duazul’s child)

Meanwhile nasubi and duazul are supposedly his parents

Togashi is great at character design between related characters. It’s smth he obviously is considering well when designing them. These 2 objectively do not look like this guy’s biological parents at all. Now there’s also the beyond child possibility, true, but that would mean beyond is the father, the mother still being duazul (altho the mother could be unma and the father beyond technically lol. That would be pretty wild imagine neither of his parents are actually his parents). Not that much of an upgrade in terms of resemblance, and it’s still unma, the mother, whose nose and features in general he has.

An implication of this would be that the 9th prince and the 1st prince are both the 1st queen’s. That’s quite the age difference. Halkenburg is definitely younger than he looks. Quasi certainly in his 20s, I bet on early 20s. It’s not like you can fake his age without him or anyone else ever knowing/noticing… So he must still be the 9th prince, younger than (6) taithon, (7) luzurus and (8) salé-salé, and older than (10+11) kachô and fûgetsu.

The thing is that whatever it is, there is something there. the letter tells us. There’s a “truth about his birth”. So him being actually unma’s child seems very possible.

Now I have even less idea how or why they would have pulled that off but let me shoot this theory in the air just because I thought of it: considering the 2 facts of:

Halkenburg (allegedly duazul’s child) looks like unma and not duazul

Tserriednich (allegedly unma’s child) does not look like unma (or nasubi, reallly), but has finer features, which could work with duazul being his mother

What about: their mothers are reversed. There could always be a reason if you think enough and make assumptions about characters’ motivations.

Again the other explanation for tserri’s not looking like the child of unma and nasubi is that he’s beyond’s child. Maybe. He does look like netero. That would make beyond and unma his parents tho. When to me nasubi is the one I can see being his dad if he doesn’t take much from him, while the only thing he has in common with unma is blond hair (i assume? that unma’s hair is blond?), which most other queens and princes have.

Obviously genetics are not this simple and can skip generations. We can see tserri being beyond’s child because he looks like young netero, even when he doesn’t look like beyond. There’s no reason why the other princes can’t take after a grandparent. But we have no way of knowing that, so. What do you want me to do about it. and it would be unsatisfying for it to be the case when we had no way of knowing. Pointless thought either way.

There’s again the possibility that tserri is beyond’s and duazul’s child, and let’s go all out, that halkenburg is nasubi’s and unma’s. Orchestrated by beyond obviously. Honestly a switcharoo between queens would just be a very easy little extra act at this point in beyond’s intricate plan, but blur the tracks much more. Low effort high reward; assuming he wants/needs to keep his prince child a secret. And assuming longhi is right about this entire premise ofc. There’s also the question of how it would work and how would tserri and halkenburg not know or ever notice.

I will say it is strange to me that tserri would be beyond’s child and not know nen until now, but that’s a subject for another time.

[moretheta]

ok i know i'm the 101st person to compare the phantom troupe and the heil-ly family, but with each new chapter we get more and more to work with & i'm chewing on it 24/7 like drywall. let's talk fatalism:

so first of all shoutout to the number one champion of this theory, my main man nobunaga:

literally idk if the guy is in a nostalgic mood or what, but he will not stop yapping about the similarities and for that i commend him & his service

for the record, phinks & feitan don't seem tooooo convinced. phinks specifically points out that hey, actually, we aren't amateurs like these guys and we don't have some crazy genocide murderscheme going on. this much is obvious in the way the PT reacts to luini's insane murderfanboying with "huh????????" *stab*

the phantom troupe do not want to destroy the world, nor were they designed to- they were designed for a very specific purpose and that was to create an environment (a web, hah) that could lure in the big criminals they wanted revenge against, while being dangerous enough to keep the petty criminals out.

these are two very different vision boards!!!

....that nevertheless share some strikingly similar imagery

and we find even more parallels in their respective leaders: aside from the obvious biblical resemblances, morena and chrollo share a similar outlook on life-- more specifically, a similar outlook on death.

more seem uncaring about their respective prospects of survival. self-preservation is such an inherently human trait- hell, a trait inherent to the living- that the lack of any such instinct whatsover is pretty damn terrifying. it leads to a certain kind of alienation from humanity that we know at least chrollo has felt (when he says shit like "humans are so interesting" like damn get your head outta your ass you are one of them). it makes them striking and scary and unpredictable. fucking brocco li points this out:

he's talking about the troupe here, but he could just as easily be talking about the heil-ly. because once again, the mafia is the establishment and the heil-ly and phantom troupe are decidedly not. the regular kakin mafia looks out for their own self-interests, which can lead to unchecked greed but is also what causes them to not go around murdering civilians just because they feel like it.

think of the loss in profits!!

now, nobunaga seems to think of the heil-ly as a sort of prototype- unrefined spider. when they're first investigating the heil-ly hideout, he says "maybe a switch was flipped when one of their own was killed," [see figure 1 above] which is a reasonable assumption to make considering his own experience. but when we check back in with the heil-ly...

their reaction to losing luini is "bummer," before immediately talking about what abilities they should develop to replace him. and in the second panel, when hinrigh kills padaille, the guys who are supposed to be his comrades just.. run away. later morena mentions that those same members are now leveling up to get revenge on hinrigh, but it seems like that stems more from hurt pride and morbid curiosity to see what they can accomplish with their shiny new powers.

these mfs are singing a "let's go hunt the mafia" jingle

big contrast to the way the xi-yu react to the death of lynch^

now both the troupe and the heil-ly are known to have fairly blasé reactions towards death and violence and general in the past. and that extends to their comrades' fights:

shalnark and co play cards while uvogin get leeches injected into his veins, or phinks & co stand by and watch feitan almost get his ass handed to him by zazan in meteor city- before he starts taking things seriously, that is. but i think that comes from a genuine respect in their comrades' strength. like everyone knew uvo could handle the shadow beasts just like they knew feitan could handle zazan. the heil-ly also seem to enjoy each others company and have a great rapport while chopping up dead bodies... but i think they don't expect much from their comrades in the way the troupe does. i mean, it's like phink's says: the troupe doesn't take on amateurs. everyone in the heil-ly is an amateur (except morena) so i don't think their laissez-faire attitude comes from confidence in their own abilities- i think they actually just do not care.

this whole exchange felt sooooo spiders-coded. which makes sense: i mean plenty of them are fans of the spiders! i think yokotani (the lawyer) was deadass trying to get an autograph lol

one thing to note is that when nobunaga attacks terebellum, he assumes the reason the gang hadn't shown signs of confrontation thus far was because they were convinced they were safe- that nobunaga and hinrigh couldn't get to them. i think that's only half the truth: when hinrigh throws a knife at this guy (the heil-ly's "organ" whatever that could mean) he just thinks "huh i wonder how long this would take to heal," before being saved by an issue of shonen jump. then he gets chastised for being reckless and going against morena's orders to keep his head down, but it's all very unserious. then everyone just kind of wanders off to do their own thing.

can i also just say i was getting from real uvogin vibes from terebellum over here

again, i can't really make any blanket statements with information we have available. but my current outlook is that the biggest difference between the spiders and the heil-ly right now is that the heil-ly is what chrollo had initially envisioned for the troupe: remember the "i am the head but i don't matter and you shouldn't make choices with my life in mind" speech? i think this is what that would look like. we know that (up until yorknew), chrollo truly believed that everyone saw the spiders as he did. that he would have no value as a hostage. that they would all be able to accept his death and move on:

and this turned out to be a fatal flaw.

the levels of cognitive dissonance going on during this whole exchange...

he was soooo in hhis head about being above humanity in his own little conceptual space where life and death don't matter that he forgot to look around and realize not everyone was there with him.

there were some, like phinks, who were in line with chrollo's philiosophy. kudos to them ig. but there were enough people who wanted to keep their friend alive- and are still working their asses off to do so today!- that his plan failed. pakunoda chief among them god rest her soul. this moment was one of the first dominos that sent into into the downward spiral he's on today. because after all he invested in the spider, all he gave up for it, it's web is slowly but surely falling apart. he is losing one lifelong member after another in events he is either powerless to stop or has a direct hand in. the ethos that kept him in this purgatory where he could temporarily transcend pain and guilt and humanity is unravelling, and the people he loves (not all of them, at least) don't share in it, and if that's the case then they've been suffering all this time. and if that's the case then what the hell has he been doing, and what the hell is the point.

so now he's stuck on a ship with a group of people that are like his own but worse (and younger and stupider g'bless) lead by someone who's like him but at peace. (and also probably worse lol). having a breakdown because people might love him. also he's trying to steal a national treasure because this is a nic cage movie apparently hey how many words is this post again

TLDR; chrollo is loosing the idgaf war

[elecballoon]

HxH inquiries I know will never be answered but I still think about (spoilers for anime and beyond the anime below)

- What was the Hunter Exam like for Satotz, Menchi, Buhara, etc.

- Is there really no compensation for being an examiner

- Who nen initiated the funny three (Gido, Riehlvelt, Sadaso)

- Who did Kastro beat to gain nine wins (count em, 9. 9 out of the 10 wins needed to be able to challenge a Floor Master)

-- I'd be willing to bet that Gido, Sadaso, and Riehlvelt was at least 1 - 3 of Kastro's wins

-- On that note, who were the eleven that Chrollo (yes, CHROLLO) beat to become a Floor Master

--- yea eleven because 10 wins + 1 floor master = 11 people chrollo had to beat

---- maybe some of them were used as experiments for chrollo's cards (sun and moon, black voice, gallery fake, order stamp, convert hands)

--- Why in Gods name did Hisoka schedule for fights he didn't even show up for

---- yeah he's an "I do what I want and I don't care" guy. But like DUDE. Because of that, your loss to Chrollo costed your EVERYTHING in Heaven's Arena and you have to START ALL OVER AGAIN

- Who is Gon's mom (if he even had a mom)

- Who was the Number 4th Phantom Troupe member before Hisoka (or was hisoka recruited on the spot..?)

-- I'd be willing to accept Omokage if Togashi would (HxH: Phantom Rouge is definitely not perfect, but it was cute for a HxH movie). bonus points if something cool/meaningful is done with Omokage

- What does Tonpa do for a living

- How often does Milluki go outside

- How has Illumi not broken down emotionally yet

- Actually how has EVERYONE in the Zoldyck estate not broken down emotionally yet

- So if Hisoka takes delight in pain and challenges, is there anything that actually pisses him off

-- I would say maybe he gets upset when he's cockblocked (i.e.: Chrollo's "I can't use nen anymore") but even then 1) it gives him more time for anticipation before he eventually realizes his twisted dreams and 2) not getting what you want can be pain and a challenge to relish in in and of itself. So idk maybe nothing angers Hisoka and if that's the case hot dang I applaud his resilience. (Yeah Hisoka took his loss against Chrollo pretty bad but he wasn't visibly ticked off about that)

- What did Tsezguerra do before Greed Island (or did he dedicate his life to something like GI)

- I get people like Machi, Nobunaga, and Franklin, who probably have jobs outside of the Phantom Troupe orders. But what do people like Phinks, Feitan, Shalnark, and Uvogin do outside of the Phantom Troupe

- What does Chrollo do in his free time

-- Does Chrollo even have a set "work time" or does he just determine any time as a good time for thievery and murder

- What is Chrollo a fan of

-- Would he share his fandom interests or keep them to himself

- What does Razor do when he's bored even with sports & such

- What was Genthru hoping to gain after getting all of the cards

-- Maybe Battera's card bounty. but after getting paid, what was he going to do

- Was Kite ever (unknowingly) SO close to Ging during his hunt for him (akin to how close Gon and Gyro were during the CA arc, perhaps?)

- How did the Chimera ants find their way from the Dark Continent and into the known world (like what did some ants migrate on the sea with some floating log)

- How did Knuckle find out about being a hunter, and what drew him to the occupation (same could be asked for Morel, Knov, Palm, and Shoot, but Knuckle intrigues me the most with his whole runaway story)

- How did Knuckle and Shoot meet; How did Morel and Knov meet; How did Morel meet Knuckle and Shoot; How did Knov meet Palm

- How did Morel mentor Knuckle and Shoot

can you tell i like the extermination team members a lot

- What does Knov teach Palm

- Do Knuckle, Shoot, and Palm consider each other as coworkers, associates, or something else (it'd be so cute if all three of them knew each other very well)

- where was Ging before the election, what was he doing (if he was being a bum I wouldn't be surprised)

- What does Pariston do when he's bored

- Does the Hunter Association involve themselves in every field (crime, medical, technology, cybersecurity, food, etc.) and if so where does their influence start and end

- How does networking work in the world of HxH

- How common is it in the world of HxH for someone to be fighting/aiming to physically harm someone or something (because for a story that proposes occupations beyond fighting, it begs the question of how common fights actually are)

- How in Gods name did King Nasubi survive his generation's Succession War

-- Either 1) the other princes destroyed themselves and only Nasubi remained, 2) Nasubi, his men, or his resources actually kicked ass in his Succession War, or 3) Even though he was weak his siblings were weaker (or something)

[jilted-love]

"Killugon is wholesome, Hisogon is problematic" Nah bruh all ships with Gon Freecss are problematic. Gon is problematic. He will blow up his arms, his life, your sanity if you so much as care about him. That "innocent" smile is a lie.

[justin-peudeau]

Whoooooaaa speaking of Benjamin I always hc Benjamin being "killed by a woman", (I always hc Theta being that woman not gonna lie).

He would die so ashamed of himself if it was the case bc like...being killed by a pussy-possessor, by a no-dick user... for real !?!?!?

My man would have the most outraged face in his coffin 😂🤚

Christian Symbolism in the Succession war

We've all seen Chrollo's cross, but there are some other references to biblical stories in the succession war that I think bear mentioning. We're going to start with the most obvious and work our way down to ones I think are a stretch.

Crown of Thorns

Morena's design features a halo or crown of thorns wrapped around her head, similar to classic depictions of the martyrdom of Jesus. The crown of thorns is the ultimate symbol of self sacrifice, the incarnation of the suffering of Jesus on the cross.

Morena's suffering, and perception of the world because of her suffering, makes her view herself as a twisted savior, here to save humanity from itself by purging all of it. In this way, she views herself as a martyr along side Jesus.

If the parallel holds true, I would expect Morena to die after being betrayed by one of her "disciples"

Samson and the Lion

Our first introduction to Prince Benjamin is as he strangles a lion while talking with his brother. This is possible a reference to the biblical story where Samson, looking for a wife, happens upon a lion and, using the power of god (and anime) beats the fuck out of so he can marry a Philistine lady. Later, she begs to know the secret of his power, and after revealing his power come from his uncut hair, she cuts it off in his sleep and turns him over to the Philistines.

Samson is the biblical ideal of strength. His faith is not perfect, his morals are iffy, and he's not the sharpest tool, but he is physically and spiritually powerful. This is emblematic of Benjamin's strong Nen and physical power.

If the parallel holds true, Benjamin will be betrayed by a woman and left to his enemies.

Virgin Mary and Jesus

The virgin Mary and Jesus are symbols of innocence, hope and the future. Woble might be a good allegory for baby jesus, as he is saddled with the sins of others, and while Oito is (probably) not a virgin, she is young, innocent, unwilling to watch people die quietly and fiercely protective of her child.

If the parallel holds true, Woble will become a symbol of hope and purity and, ultimately, not outlive his mother.