#nasubi hui guo rou

[morallygay]

[moretheta]

based on this

[diebootzenkatzen]

Hunter x Hunter is off hiatus... And so am I

[ulicolor]

YOUNG NASUBI IS KINDA...

okay i might be gooning for an old (hes like pushing 60) man who fw his kids killing each other, however, one must consider the following: Nasubi Hui Guo Rou won the last succesion contest, and quite possibly perhaps while in it he may have been bad as hell AS WELL AS a certified cinamon roll i mean look at the guy!!!!

he's just happy to be here omg 😭😭😭 not only that, considering THESE HOTTIES ARE HIS KIDS!!!!!

PEOPLE!!! YOUNG NASUBI WOULD BE

1) HOT AS HELL

2) CERTIFIED CINAMON ROLL

3) HAS A VERBAL TICK (cute)

also headcanon but me personally nasubi was quote the flirt i mean he bagged Duazul, Seiko, and Sevanti i mean...

[moretheta]

Ok this was probably not an invitation to go crazy on this post but unfortunately I am me so let's talk TUBEPPA!!!

The basic take I have on Tubeppa's beast is that it's chameleon-like appearence is reflective of her overcautious nature. Like how chameleons and hide from predators by blending in! Rihan (you know, the Predator) has been assigned to her, and we know from him that her nen beast is almost always hiding itself:

(Terrible news for Rihan, considering he needs to familiarize himself with said nen beast before he can create the Predator and take her out. She's definitely a harder target than Salé-Salé, which I personally am happy about. I like her a hell of a lot better than I did the fratboy.)

Tubeppa is a really curious character because she is one of the only higher-tiered princes (as in, not one of the kids, and not Halkenburg) who isn't like. actively thirsting for the blood of babies. I think the middling princes (again, besides Halkenburg) are all in this weird limbo where they're trying to ignore all the shit going on around them with distractions: for Salé-Salé that was sex, Luzurus it's smoking weed, and Tyson has her strange self-help cult. All pretty straightfoward. Then there are the higher princes; of which you have the reasonable :Zhang Lei, Tubeppa, and the ... unreasonable : Benjamin, Camilla, and of course, Tserriednich. The latter of which are hell-bent on murdering the shit out of their siblings and won't take no for an answer.

We know from that very illuminating phone call and Shimano's testimony(thank you Shimano) that Zhang Lei is a prince "both kind and cruel."

He can be reasoned with, he is open to finding a less bloody way to end the succession war, but he is nonetheless proud and arrogant. He's in this for himself, rather than any kind of greater cause. I think if you gave him a gun and told him he'd win the war automatically by shooting Woble... he'd do it. Like, he could pardon the youngins if it was convient, but he has no real conviction to.

Tubeppa is weird though. We know (again, thank you Shimano) that she intends to pardon the younger princes...

......after she takes out her older siblings. This is something she is VERY DETERMINED TO DO. CONVICTION!!

But interestingly enough (and she shares this ...quirk with her full! sibling Halkenburg) she decides to ally with Tserriednich of all people to accomplish her goals.

It's no secret to the reader or the general populace what Tserriednich does in his free time. He is just as arrogrant, greedy, indulgent, and vain as his elder siblings. One might even say he is the worst of them (I will say that. I think he's the worst. I'm no Bejamin fan but nothing we've seen from him has gotten him to Terror Sandwich levels of evil in my book). So the question is: does Tubeppa somehow not know? Or has she deemed him the lesser of two evils, for now? She didn't exactly seem fond of the guy, but they were oddly comfortable around each other.

This panel actually does a pretty great job at spelling out what I was trying to articulate earlier. Younger Princes= Easy targets, just trying to survive. Middle Princes? No ambition. Halkenburg? Halkenburg. This is a fight between the Eldest Princes and they know it.

And that does bring me back to Halkenburg once more, who infamously said Tserriednich was the only one of his brothers who understood him. For someone like Halkenburg, with such a strong sense of Justice, you would think there would be some conflict between him and his serial killer human trafficker rapist monster of a brother? No? Ok this is going into a Tserriednich tangent and I wont be having that. What I mean to point out is that among all the siblings, Tubeppa and Halkenburg both seem to be motivated by their own sense of personal justice. Not unambitious like the middling princes, not just barely trying to survive like the younger princes, or bloodthirsty like the eldest princes. And regarding Zhang Lei- who was indeed established to be more reasonable- he sits apart because doesn't show any interest in reform or justice. He seems to be in it for himself.

So. Two princes with a strong sense of justice want to reform the system by taking down the elder princes and pardoning their younger siblings- and both somehow aligned themselves with the biggest monster in the bunch. Where do they differ? Well, we know Halkenburg is more the straightforward type. Everything about his nen beast and its ability is designed to be used in conjunction with his very loyal retainers- he is, to put it simply, a people person. He trusts others. Tubeppa is the opposite. She trusts no one. She's overcautious. She hides and waits and stragetizes. Is it possible that she is also hiding her true nature? Is the contradiction of her truce with Tserriednich an indication that she isn't who she says she is? It's strange, because she certainly looks very sincere in the panel above. Even Tserriednich is like uh 😦 uhhhuh

"yeah, see you next sunday, sis. good luck on the whole murdering our elder siblings thing!"

and so we come to the infamous first full shot of both their nen beasts.

It's funny. If you're looking at their positioning, Tubeppa is waving goodbye over her shoulder while walking away. Her nen beast is facing Tserriednich, and thus has its back to her. Meanwhile Tserriednich is watching her go, and we have this side-by-side of Tserri and his Beast mirroring each other- both turning their heads in the same way, angled similarly, bending one knee asymmetrically to shift their weight. Basically, they're in tune. I might be reading into this wayyyy too much, but I think it would be interesting to imagine Tubeppa's nen beast to be a protector and observer, but one that won't work in tandem with her. That is why its never around- it's doing its own thing. We know nen beasts are able to work against their hosts' interests- see Halkenburg and the Bullet- so is this is a case of Tubeppa fighting her own paranoia?

We know the beast has a parasitic-type ability, i.e. the host is unable to control it

It requires a "research partner" to transmute it's poisons (which makes sense if we're expounding on the reptiliean theme) but it's interesting that the idea of partnership is built into its nature, yet it remains hidden. Could Tubeppa herself fill the role of the partner? Or would she have to trust someone else to do it? And if she did, would she put her faith in someone like fucking Tserriednich again?

TLDR; If we are building on this idea that nen beasts reveal, my thesis-statement would be that Tubeppa's spirit-beast reveals her unwillingness to trust in others, despite really needing to do so. She has to find allies, but is too damn paranoid to do it. Her judgement is so screwy that either she has a completely warped view of people like Tserriednich, or that was all a play and she isn't putting an ounce of trust in him either. In which case she is, once again, in a place of isolation.

FROG CAR!!!!

Wow. that was originally supposed to be a little four sentence paragraph. Sorry to go crazy on your post OP

WHAT I'm saying, what the larger theory is, is that the nen beasts Reveal. In line with togashi's theory on power, such a grand display of power and desire could take no other form than something deeply, nakedly revealing.

WHAT I am saying is that this metaphor shit Kicks Ass.

Benjamin's nen beast is a humaniod angel of sharp jagged features and ever beared teeth. He is agressive, militaristic and has a need for dominence. At the same time, the beast stands on his shoulders and grins. It is his ego and idealized self, as a lightweight, combat ready creature of vanity. As far as I remember, he's one of the only princes who ask what his beast looks like.

Camilla's nen beast is an abstraction, strange and surreal while overtly sexual and almost comedic. It's disconnected with reality, her alien mindset and vanity given form as as beautiful memory of an anemone.

Zhang lei's beast is a flat circle, with a crude rendition of his face at its center. The beast is wheels within wheels, with a flare like the sun, suggesting days, months and years on a crude calender, with Zhang Lei resting at the center. It's his narcisism, his scheming, and his spanning ambition, all on display.

Lets talk about penis head.

Ok: so penis head isn't technically a nen guardian beast. Technically I already talked about his nen beast, boob horse in another post. Shush.

Tsrriednich's beast is a mix flesh and fauna, virile and dessicated in turns. It's bulging muscle interpearsed with bear bones and ingraining roots. It is his fixation on death and rebirth, his sexism and reverence for the "natural" order where trash is burned. It's otherworldly wings and demented veggie head tell us his ideas of "natural" is similarly distorted.

Tubeppa's beast is a weird frog car.

Fuck if I know.

[turtledotjpeg]

a letter to the dead and a letter back, for a @greedislandchallenge c:

i want to know what momoze knows...

[monosanimegenericzone]

Hunter x Hunter: the vegetable brothers

this just occurred to me

im so late to this party

BUT CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE 3 KAKIN ADULTS.

WE HAVE FUCKIN.

BROCCO LI. LOOKIN LIKE AN IMMACULATE FLORET

ONIOR LONGBAO. LOOKIN LIKE HE GOT LAYERS

NASUBI HUI GUO ROU. LOOKIN LIKE AN EGGPLANT.

BCS YKNOW WHAT EGGPLANT IS IN JAPANESE???

NASU.

THIS FUCKING GUY.

anyway i thought that was funny. enjoy my ranting and raving.

[cocogum]

Weird HxH Facts you might’ve not noticed before (part 7)

Fact #1: According to Gelato, left-handed Nen users are likely to become conjurers.

Explanation:

In chapter 394, Gelato recognized a certain pattern between a majority of her comrades becoming conjurers. They all share the fact that they’re left-handed which makes her assume that left-handed people have a higher chance of becoming conjuration users than right-handed ones.

Fact #2: Mito has a drinking problem.

Explanation:

In chapter 1 of the manga, we can see Mito surrounded by bottles of liquor implying that she has been drinking for a good while before Gon came into the room.

Even though his aunt has been drinking a worrisome amount of liquor, it doesn’t seem to faze Gon in any way whatsoever.

The thought of Gon leaving her like how Ging did to take the Hunter exam made her resort to drinking and in addition to the fact that Gon doesn’t react to this behaviour suggests that Mito uses alcoholic beverages to deal with her problems.

Fact #3: Milluki didn’t set foot outside of the zoldyck estate for 7 years.

Explanation:

Milluki stated that the last time he left the manor was when he was ten years old. He reveals this information in chapter 72 when he was seventeen years old at the time meaning he finally went outside after seven years.

Fact #4: In the anime, Genthru calls Killua “the eye-slanted kid”.

Explanation:

When Genthru and his companions Sub and Bara take on the decision to finally confront Gon and his team, Genthru dictates the other two who they’ll be fighting against.

He mentions that he’ll be fighting “the kid with spiky black hair” (Gon) and Bara will take “the girl” (Bisky). But upon telling Sub that he’ll be fighting Killua, rather than telling him he’ll be fighting “the white-haired one” like how he did in chapter 175, episode 73 changed this part and made Genthru call Killua “the slant-eyed kid” instead.

This small comment of Genthru’s is a real offensive term that’s been thrown toward people from East Asia especially the ones who come from China and Japan.

The term means having eyes that appear to tilt from each side.

Fact #5: The majority of the original spider members have last names.

Explanation:

The original spider members were Chrollo, Uvogin, Shalnark, Nobunaga, Machi, Pakunoda, Feitan, Franklin and Phinks.

Excluding Uvogin and Pakunoda, the rest of the originals have last names even though some came to the land of trash as infants and others were born there without any recollection of their own families.

The spiders’ last names besides the two mentioned above are as follows: Chrollo Lucilfer, Nobunaga Hazama, Feitan Portor, Machi Komacine, Phinks Magcub, Shalnark Ryuseih and Franklin Bordeau.

Whether the members have made up those last names or were simply good at remembering them if they came from the outside remains a mystery.

Fact #6: The chaar family’s boss is named Brocco Li.

Explanation:

Brocco Li’s name is pretty self-explanatory.

Unlike some characters who also have names based on food like Kite’s group of Amateur hunters such as Banana Kavaro and Stick Dinner as well as Netero’s assistant named Beans, Brocco Li has a much more significant position in the Succession Contest arc.

He is the boss of the Cha-R family and is an illegitimate half-brother of King Nasubi Hui Guo Rou. Despite his superior position, he has a rather odd funny name.

[futuredaysbycan]

hxh black whale era headcanons/misc thoughts what could happen

camillas favourite designers are mcqueen (archival), gareth pugh and simone rocha

coil the band exists in hxh universe, kurapika loves them

senritsu is into dub

tserriednich collects the kurtan eyes only because they fit with his the redidents vinyl collection

speaking of the kurtan eyes there is nothing special about the colour itself, its only about how rare/collectible they are

tserriednich will get killed by some smartass technique that takes longer time to work

chrollo has no surname, lucilfer is his confirmation name and its literally just lucifer in the language of meteor city

all nasubi hui guo rous marriages are political, i think there is a wife for each V5 country, kakin, jappon and as last diplomatic marriage would be oito (shes from meteor city to me ♥️)

the guy who told chrollo he looks awful will be important character later (togashi i beg you)

the goya on the ship is fake

kalluto will betray illumi for the troupe or to help the main cast

halkenbug is on good terms with tserriednich because they are both redditors, he wont see the red flags until he literally sees tserri kill a woman in front of him and his reaction will be like bro whyy :( i liked you

morena will kiss/get into her little murder club a pre-arc known character (hisoka or leorio come to my mind)

[aspoonofsugar]

Morena’s Balance

I am late, but here’s my piece for the @hxhladieszine! It is a meta on the wonderful Morena Prudo, who has so far only appeared once, but is already a full fledged character with a lot of potential!

You can preorder the zine at the zine big cartel store!

How does one find balance?

Freud thinks that the key lies in the ego, id and superego aka the three parts of the self:

• The id is a primitive force. It is instinct. All the fears and wishes lie in the id. Unbound and unruled.

• The superego is what society expects. What is right? What is wrong? The answers to these questions are in the superego, which is made of society’s values.

• The ego balances the id and the superego. It finds realistic ways to compromise between what the id wants and what the superego asks.

Are these three parts in harmony? Ok, then the person is balanced. Is the ego too weak? Then we have a problem.

Ego, id and superego are often used in stories symbolically and they are relevant when it comes to Morena. Let’s see how.

INDIVIDUAL VS SOCIETY

Morena is introduced in the chapter Balance and this idea is at the root of her story:

Morena’s personal goal is to tear down her society and, in order to do so, she claims she has found balance within herself. In this way, her goal and inner stability are contrasted with society’s balance.

Power can’t be shared because the result would be chaos. This is the key idea behind the Kakin Empire. So, Morena, who wants to destroy her country gives people power, specifically hoping that this will bring destruction. This is the opposite of the 'balance' favored by society, where stability comes at the cost of some people continuing to have much more than others.

RISE MY ZOMBIES: ID VS SUPEREGO

Contagion lets Morena spread her chaotic ideology like an illness. She “infects” 22 other people. The infected become stronger the more they kill until they gain a personal nen ability and finally become able to infect another 22 people themselves.

Morena is using this ability to create new nen users that can challenge the Kakin leading class. This makes her interesting to compare with Kurapika. Both characters are using their powers to awaken nen in others and they are doing so for political reasons. Still, their objectives and approaches differ.

First of all, Morena’s objective is to kill all the princes and to break the status quo. Kurapika instead wants to save the princes and to avoid an all-out war. They both acknowledge that Kakin society is broken and that there needs to be a redistribution of power. So, they are metaphorically sharing their power (nen) with others. Still, what Morena wants is a violent revolution, while what Kurapika is trying for is a peaceful reform.

Secondly, the way Kurapika and Morena awaken people to nen is different. On one hand Kurapika trains the basics, gives people an active aura and the chance to choose their hatsu. On the other hand, Morena’s method grants a hatsu quickly, but it is not chosen by the person. It is more a manifestation of the person’s subconscious:

Luini: The boss said it herself, didn’t she? “If your wish for it is strong enough, your ability will answer you”.

It is one’s personality and hidden wishes coming to the surface. This makes sense considering what a member of Morena’s group must do to gain an ability. The condition set by Morena is to kill, so she wants her followers to act with no restriction. She wants them not to be bound by moral or social laws.

This is coherent with what Morena and her group represents for the Battle Royal. They are nothing but society’s id, so they are what society represses and does not see. They are people neglected by the Empire that have been surviving in its shadow (the criminal world).

This is what Morena’s background is about:

Second Raker: a portmanteau between second rate and faker. It refers to descendants of the King who cannot become legitimate heirs to the throne. Upon birth, their faces are slashed with two razors. They are permitted to live under the condition they never make any kind of appearance in politics or the public eye.

She is the daughter of the King, but since she is not the daughter of one of his many wives, she is considered less than her siblings and marked at birth. She is given a role in the underground, like the other second rakers, but she refuses it. She decides to become a virus that destroys the world and starts from the mafia itself, where she stages a coup. Now she is trying to spread this infection to the whole Black Whale. She wants it to reach the very top of the boat, so metaphorically the top of society.

However, even if it is important to acknowledge repressed wishes in both society and one-self, they must be balanced out by the community (the superego), which is not just corruption and laws, but also other people. One must mediate between what is good for others and what she wants. This is because one’s morality, beliefs and relationships are just as important as one’s wishes and fears.

If there is a refusal of mediation, then one can never become a full-fledged individual. This is why Morena’s allies lose pretty quickly when they meet more experienced nen users. Their opponents are people who have trained and have chosen who they want to be. Morena’s infected soldiers are zombies obeying their master’s command to destroy. They are motivated by a hunger for power, but being hungry is not enough. One must think about oneself and who one wants to become, work hard for it and grow slowly.

ETUDE OF LOVE: A WEAK EGO

The other name for Morena’s power is Etude of Love, which means study of love. It is a hint to what Morena’s true problem is:

A lack of love is Morena’s true infection and the reason for her metaphorical “outbreak” that is destroying the ship. This is also why the method she chooses to spread her curse is through kissing. It is a commentary on sexual illnesses and a parody of her father’s values:

Guardian Spirit Beast: A Beast of Nen created by the strong nen left by the ones who desired prosperity for their offspring.

Nasubi’s nen beast is linked to fertility. This is why its design has many sexual references (a phallus, breasts and so on). It is a fitting beast for a man with eight wives, at least one mistress and fifteen children. Nasubi believes in fertility and abundance and has designed a ritual that sacrifices his kids to reach prosperity for the whole kingdom. Morena chooses an ability rooted in the same ideas, but twists it into a destructive force.

They are two different kinds of infections. After all, Morena’s power alludes to a bacterial contamination, while the Seed Urn Ritual is inspired by a Japanese ritual magic called Worm Toxin. Poisonous insects are put in a jar, so that they can eat each other. The surviving insect magically absorbs all the others’ poison. Just like the princes are made to fight each other, so that only the strongest survives.

Nasubi wants the princes to die to crown an Emperor, while Morena wants them to die so that there is no Emperor. Nasubi fills the world of children whom he discards as insects, while Morena creates subjects to kill those same children. Nasubi puts society first, while Morena’s resentment is born by the negation of her individuality.

It is because of this negation that Morena has grown up as a nihilist:

This makes her similar to Chrollo:

Morena and Chrollo share the same lack of attachment to life and a religious motif. Chrollo is a mix between the Devil and an inverse Jesus, while Morena’s crown of thorns links her to Jesus as well.

Both their religious motifs have to do with them being leaders. Chrollo and the Spiders are a group of misfits that choose to steal from others, instead of promoting Christian values of charity or trying to change the unjust philosophy of society. They are a disturbance like Jesus and his disciples, but their philosophy is the opposite of his. Morena wears a crown of thorns because she is considered by her society a fake queen, just like Jesus was mocked for his title of King of the Jews. Jesus has this mockery inflicted by others, while Morena is symbolically choosing to inflict it to herself through wearing the crown.

As leaders, both Chrollo and Morena put their identities into their groups. Chrollo has created a group, which in his dreams will survive him. He refers to himself as “the head of the spiders” and thinks his life is not more important than the other members’. Morena’s whole plan consists of leaving her group to do the dirty work for her and her power has no other effect, but to grant others abilities.

This dependence on their respective groups is a hint of how both Chrollo and Morena’s sense of self is ultimately very weak. They have weak egos.

This is why Chrollo needs to steal others’ powers. He steals people’s selves hoping he can find his own and does not realize how his sense of self is in the familial relationships he has with his spiders.

Morena instead tries to oppose Nasubi, but reduces herself to his negation. She is defined by him. She hates hierarchies and this is why her power supposedly grants every member the chance to create their own community. Still, it is all rooted in hierarchies. People are given value through numbers and are granted gifts and rights only if they level up. Even the people Morena’s group has to kill are granted a value. Normal people are less than nen users who are less than princes.

Morena is moving in the same framework as Nasubi, just in the opposite direction. She has not freed herself from his vision. Maybe this is why a prince is at level 50, while she is only at level 45. 

BON VOYAGE: A STRONG EGO

This is the basic idea of HxH and it is something Morena is not doing.

She thinks that she can keep on living only by wishing for everyone to die and has prepared herself for death once she reaches this objective.

She is fixated on a trauma of her past and thinks it decides her destination. However, the destination is not really important. It is the journey that counts because it is through it that Morena can find out who she is. If she refuses the journey, she will never find inner-balance. Her ego will keep being too weak to mediate between the id and the superego and this brings only destruction both on a personal level and on a societal level.

[progg]

The Succession Cycle

The Seed Urn has one of the most complicated, confusing, and esoteric Nen abilities in Hunter x Hunter. By means of its mysterious, difficult-to-fulfill conditions, it has condemned thirteen princes to their deaths, trapping them in a fatal Succession War.

Or has it?

In this write-up, I’ll be taking on the formidable task of figuring out what the hell is going on with the Seed Urn, the fourteen coffins, and the Great Tree of Kakin. It all comes down to the cyclical nature of succession.

THE FOURTEENTH COFFIN

One of the most discussed mysteries of the Succession Arc is that of the fourteen coffins. If the idea of the Succession War is for there to be only one survivor, there should only be thirteen coffins—one for each dead prince. As a result, many theories attempt to explain the existence of the fourteenth coffin. I believe the fourteenth coffin is for Nasubi himself.

When first introduced to Nasubi, we learn that his primary motivation for settling on the Dark Continent is his legacy.

And this is the narrative Nasubi himself will push.

His actions resemble those of someone who knows their death is imminent. Why the sudden concern about his posthumous image? We can figure it out from his meeting with Halkenburg.

The duty in question is most likely to assemble his deceased children into the coffins. Once this task is complete, Nasubi will willingly die and occupy the fourteenth. The purpose of this will become clear later, but for now I will say it is most likely a condition of the Seed Urn’s nen.

One thing is for certain: the task Nasubi has to perform is of the utmost importance. The Black Whale is probably going to sink as a result of the chaos below decks, providing a perfect cover story for the Succession War. Whether Nasubi intends this is up for debate, but I’m almost certain he expects it. This may be why the coffin room’s design resembles Nen inscription: so the room won’t be destroyed when the rest of the ship goes under.

Another more practical reason for Nasubi’s death is the traditional rules of succession. Typically, an emperor rules for life and does not abdicate the throne after accepting it. It follows that Nasubi should be dead by the end of the Succession Contest so that the winner can legally and unquestionably take his place. Assuming none of the princes have children of their own, the throne would fall to the lone survivor of the Succession War, by equal primogeniture. And, of course, the previous Kakin ruler is nowhere to be found, further supporting this point.

That being said, I don’t want to discount the possibility Nasubi is planning around his death (despite his internal thoughts and actions suggesting otherwise). I do think there is one other possible occupant for the fourteenth coffin, and that is Nasubi’s butler, Nugui. My reason will become clearer down the line, but for now, keep this idea in the back of your mind.

THE SEED URN: SPIRIT BEASTS

Understanding the mechanics of the Seed Urn is a formidable challenge. It happens to be one of the most complicated abilities in the series, overloaded with several enigmatic limitations (which I will, probably in futility, attempt to guess).

To start off, let’s look at the description for Guardian Spirit Beasts.

The key thing to note here is that Guardian Spirit Beasts are created at the time of death of some individual. Intuitively, this would be the First Kakin King (referred to here and out as FKK). However, this would require an inordinate amount of energy, as Kurapika hypothesizes.

While it’s possible FKK’s initial conditions were so powerful he was able to create an infinite supply of Spirit Beasts that could be passed on to his distant descendants, I find it more likely the Seed Urn is being replenished at the outset of every Succession War. In other words, a new death is required to give birth to a new generation of Spirit Beasts.

The beasts are said to possess someone closely related to the dead, further supporting this point. As I alluded to in the section about Nasubi’s death, we can assume the current generation of Spirit Beasts was spawned by the death of Nasubi’s parent, the previous Kakin ruler. Nasubi’s parent would have died as a condition of the previous Succession War (the one Nasubi participated in), which Onior Longbao is looking into.

This also means Nasubi’s death will spawn Spirit Beasts for his successor’s children. If we follow this line of thinking, we start to see the idea of a “Succession Cycle” take shape.

No Spirit Beast spawner for FKK’s immediate children, as these are specifically the conditions of his post-mortem Nen.

Put simply, Spirit Beasts are created by the death of the owner’s grandparent. However, there’s a bit more to it than that.

The Spirit Beasts don't manifest immediately upon the grandparent’s death. Instead they take the form of an egg, only hatching when the initial conditions of the Succession War are satisfied. This is necessary because the Spirit Beast recipients haven’t been born when the Beasts themselves are created. I believe this is a hidden ability of the Seed Urn.

The incubation is necessary because the grandparent’s death must coincide with the Succession War he is overseeing. The replenishing of the Seed Urn requires the death of all but one of that Succession War’s participants. Note: this would appear to be a condition of the Seed Urn, not the Spirit Beasts themselves. There are various clues that point to this being the case. One is the image of smoke rising from the Urn, then fizzling out once a Spirit Beast is granted. This represents a loss of the Seed Urn’s energy.

This energy is returned in the coffin room, when the Seed Urn is placed in the central fixture. I know it’s a popular idea that a person will occupy the central fixture and be granted some special power. For me, the reward for winning the Succession War is simply that you get to keep your Spirit Beast, an immensely powerful protective creature (this appears to be the case with Nasubi, a prior victor). It’s also possible the deaths of the other princes not only serve to replenish the Seed Urn but also to repay a “Nen debt” incurred after the hatching of the winner’s Spirit Beast.

By lending their energy to the urn, the victims of the Succession War live on through the next generation’s Spirit Beasts. In this way, the phrase “perpetuation of one’s descendants” (used in the Spirit Beast description) becomes a double entendre. As Nasubi dies and gives birth to the Spirit Beasts, he will be hoping not only for the perpetuation of his living line but also his dead children.

THE SEED URN: INHERITANCE

There are really four possibilities for the Seed Urn’s test of inheritance.

Descendants of FKK

Possible, but we just don’t know enough about FKK, although it makes sense that the Urn would be able to determine whether participants have its creator’s blood.

Descendants of the Grandparent

It makes sense that Spirit Beasts should only be granted to the person that spawned them. This also opens the door for secret bastards, and assigns significance to their illegitimacy. We are likely to learn more about key players in the previous Succession War in the near future.

When I first began this write-up, this was the interpretation I went with. I was considering that the Seed Urn’s effect occurred automatically, in intervals of 30 years, and that Nasubi was merely using it in parallel to his Succession Contest. This would explain his desperate, legacy-obsessed journey to the Dark Continent: his fate was sealed as soon as he put his hand in the Seed Urn.

However, I ran into too many contradictions with this interpretation and had to settle on the following:

Descendants of the King

It seems likely Nasubi is imposing his own will on the Seed Urn. Think of it like Genthru and Meleoron’s abilities. Both (supposedly) have conditions that involve explaining their mechanics, which is precisely what Nugui appears to have done for the Seed Urn.

Assuming revealing the terms to participants is a condition, it’s important that we make a distinction between the Succession Contest and the Seed Urn’s ability, as Nasubi himself does.

I believe the Seed Urn’s ability involves the sacrifice of participants, as well as the cyclical creation and replenishment of Spirit Beasts, but it does not include the other conditions Nasubi imposes on it.

This is further reinforced by Benjamin’s mention of a “deal”.

And a few other comments by Nasubi.

It seems there is—or at least, was—some variability concerning the Succession War’s rules. With this distinction in mind, we can separate the conditions and abilities into two categories: the urn’s and the contest’s. The wall of hands, for example, seems to be an ability that manifested after Nasubi devised his contest, limiting the “field of play” to the Black Whale.

Which brings us to the actual inheritance test. It would seem the offering of blood is a condition of the urn, but the inheritance test may actually be a condition of the contest. And rather than imposing a condition which tested a participant’s relation to himself, Nasubi (perhaps inadvertently) created a condition that tests a participant’s relation to the queens.

In other words, it is possible for an illegitimate child to be granted a Spirit Beast. This is very important when considering the possibility of secret bastards.

The one major issue I have with this “condition-imposing” interpretation is that, well, Nasubi isn’t the one reading the conditions. It’s Nugui. One would think only a previous victor, or at the least someone with provable inheritance, would be able to use the Seed Urn. One would also assume the person who imposes the conditions is the one who must die as a result of them.

It’s possible (maybe even likely) that Nasubi knows much more about the mechanics of the Seed Urn than he lets on, including the condition of the user’s death. This is why, as I mentioned much earlier, I can also see Nugui being the planned occupant of the fourteenth coffin. A betrayal may be in the works.

There’s also the fourth possibility for inheritance.

There is no inheritance test

Since nobody fails the test, we have no way of knowing there actually is one. It could all be a clever trick to get participants to offer their blood to the urn.

THE SUCCESSION CYCLE

Let me circle back to this comment by Nasubi.

It’s unclear whether a Succession Contest (or at least a use of the Seed Urn) has been occurring every generation since the death of FKK. Nasubi might be concealing information here, or he might not be. Previously, I used the term “grandparent” to refer to the Spirit Beasts’ spawner, but the spawner could also just be the last ruler to die as a condition of the urn. It’s not necessary for a Succession War to have occurred every generation.

However, I have a feeling Succession Contests have been going on for a very long time, and pretty consistently to boot.

And, as I explained here, the prior Succession War likely took place thirty years ago, before being covered up by the “Silent Revolution”.

As for how the urn’s conditions will be broken… I don’t really know. It may involve shattering the Seed Urn. It may involve killing Nasubi (or Nugui) prematurely. It’s difficult to say, but I do think there are some clues.

The idea that the conditions can even be broken at all is first suggested by Kurapika.

Kurapika seems to think withdrawing from the Succession War can break the conditions of the Seed Urn—specifically, the conditions that created the Spirit Beasts. He may be right, but he may also be wrong. As discussed previously, the conditions for the Seed Urn’s power and the conditions for the Succession Contest may be disjoint. Not to mention, it’s commonplace for characters to come to incorrect conclusions in Hunter x Hunter, especially in the Succession Arc.

I think the bigger clue comes from Kurapika’s warning about Halkenburg’s ability.

I believe Kurapika’s words here can also apply to the ability of the Seed Urn. The expectation is that the Spirit Beasts’ inheritors will be “equal in aspiration”. This could mean perpetuating the Kakin royal line, or it could mean participating in the battle for the throne. If we assume the Succession Contests have been going on for a very long time, FKK seems to have made an assumption that all of the victors would have the same aspirations as him, meaning they would want to host their own Succession Contest and strengthen their line.

However, we know this isn’t the case. I suspect the Seed Urn’s undoing will be caused by those who do not share FKK’s aspirations. It’s possible Nasubi’s successor will put an end to the Succession Cycle once and for all.

I call it the Succession Cycle because there seems to be a recurring theme in Hunter x Hunter regarding cycles of violence.

I wrote about this idea extensively in my analysis of Chapter #337, “Repentance”. I’ve also touched on it in Shadow and Light and Kurapika’s Fate. The revelation that there was a previous Succession Contest—and that similar contests may have been occurring for centuries before it—fits nicely into the story, especially if the repetition is going to be stopped in some major climactic way.

<source>

[moretheta]

^ Longhi, the illegitimate daughter of Beyond Netero [chapter 401]

^ Morena, the illegitimate daughter of Nasubi Hui Guo Rou [chapter 378]

something something we were children used as weapons and pawns only to be discarded once no longer useful. something something my father never gave me any choice about whether or not to be part of his plans. but now, i will offer one to you. join me in bringing him down.

hey so does everyone remember morena getting an opening spread in chapter 401 - you know, the one in which longhi's revealed her negotiation ability

i'm starting to have thoughts but only just barely

[star-fiend]

Hunter X Hunter, chapter 384, "Awakening"

[hunterexamcheatsheet]

I want to thank @itsmyara for this information.

You can take the hxh survey here.

[arikaido]

Hola buenas que tal ... nuevamente reportando ante este medio ...que pasa nos extrañaban

[elixirforadeadman]

Body retrieval will be necessary.